The logistical issues surrounding the timing and transport of flowback generated by each shale gas well to the next is a big challenge. Due to more and more flowback being stored temporarily near the shale gas well and reused in the shale gas development, both transportation cost and storage cost are the heavy burden for the developers. This research proposed a theoretical cost optimization model to get the optimal flowback distribution solution for regional multi shale gas wells in a holistic perspective. Then, we used some empirical data of Marcellus Shale to do the empirical study. In addition, we compared the optimal flowback distribution solution by considering both the transportation cost and storage cost with the flowback distribution solution which only minimized the transportation cost or only minimized the storage cost. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.